| FM Transmitter,
RDS Board, Antenna, and
"Tune To" Sign |
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| FM Transmitter and RDS Board: | ||
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FM Transmitter - Everything put together and connected - It's actually transmitting on 100.3 in this picture, but the cameras flash washed out the LED Display. |
I had a LOT of hum from the wall wart I used, (I snipped off the end and connected it to the terminal block) so I put the ferrite choke you see here on the power cord and that virtually cut it all out. |
FM Transmitter mounted in a case. |
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SWR & Power Meter. |
RDS Board - Top. I got the RDS Board here. Pinouts Vastelec Transmitter Mod Chip Specs Connection Diagram |
RDS Board - Bottom. |
| Vertical Dipole Antenna: | ||
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PVC Tee and Plug with BNC Connector. |
Drilling a hole in the plug for the BNC Connector. |
BNC Connector with the wires soldered on. Notice the colors used :) I put green on the shield and red on the center. In a Vertical Dipole you want the center wire pointing up. |
| BNC Connector attached, wires threaded through Tee, ready for glue. |
I will be broadcasting at 100.3 FM, so each leg of my Dipole needed to be 28 inches. (The formula is 468/freq for total length, then divide that by 2 for each leg length.) I cut the pipe a little shorter because of the Tee size, and notched the ends to pull the wire tight and keep it secured and straight. |
The final cut lengths. |
| Close up of the notch with the wire pulled tight and crimped. |
I marked the ends before painting so I could make sure the center wire is up. |
Finished product! It's hard to notice, but I painted the whole thing flat black and painted the top cap a dark red / burgundy color. |
| "Tune To" Sign: | ||
| The vinyl decals arrived today - I ordered them from www.vinzdecals.com. I plan on applying these to the back of a sheet of plexiglass (That's why I had them cut backwards) and then I'm going to spray over them with red paint. When the red dries, I'll remove them and spray white where they were. |
Decals applied to the plexiglass. |
Plexiglass flipped over. |
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First coat of red spray paint applied over the vinyl decals. (Looks orange in this picture.) |
All red coats done, vinyl decals peeled off. |
Applying the first coat of white. |
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Two coats of white. |
You can see that the white is not as thick as the red in this one. |
I stood it up (Still wet!) to see what it would look like. |
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All dry! - waiting for a nice box. |
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